Portable electronic devices, such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants (PDA's) provide information to users through an increasing number of modalities, including graphical information displayed on display screens, sound played through speakers, and vibrations generated via vibratory components. Increasingly, there is a desire to extend the capabilities of the devices, so as to enable a more immersive experience.
Historically, vibrational feedback has been used as a substitute for an auditory alert. Such a form of alert has proved to be popular during sound sensitive occasions where an auditory alert would be generally disturbing to others. Furthermore, vibrational feedback has been historically used to provide a confirming tactile sensation, relative to the actuation of a user selection, generally involving a selection via physical contact, such as the depression of a key.
More recently, vibrational feedback has been used to supplement the conveyance of visual and/or auditory information. One such environment includes video games, where vibratory feedback can be conveyed to the user through the user's hands via a device, such as a controller. An effect associated with the game play, such as a crash could be accompanied by the visual presentation of sparks and/or an explosion; an audio presentation of a squeal of brakes, the popping of flames and/or the crunching of metal; and a general vibrational effect, which coincides with the crash.
Traditionally, relative to gaming, vibrational effects conveyed via a hand-held device have not been very specific, and have often involved a single source, such as a rotary mass vibrator, which was somewhat centrally located, and generally vibrated the entire device with a specific intensity for a specified duration.
At least one form of audio file format, known as the musical instrument digital interface (MIDI), allows for the control of a vibratory device via a predefined instrument designation, which is associated with the driver of a vibratory source. However, such an existing standard generally supports only a single common vibratory control.
Part of creating a more immersive experience relative to vibratory feedback involves more variably and more finely controlling the generation of the vibratory feedback so as to more closely mirror the effect that the device is intended to reproduce. A further part of creating a more immersive experience relative to vibratory feedback involves better synchronizing the vibrational effects with the other forms of output to be sensed by the user including other auditory and visual effects.
The present inventors have recognized that it would be desirable to be able to control multiple different groupings of vibrational sources, and to have greater flexibility in the generation of each of those vibrational effects. By mapping the vibrational effects to existing audio commands and allowing the separate control of multiple vibrational element groupings in an audio file format, more immersive vibrational effects, which are more readily synchronized with other effects can be created, which will enhance a user's overall usage experience.